Nicknames
by aruvqan
Summary: How some of the Rangemen got their nicknames.
1. Chapter 1

Nicknames

*sigh* My butt is asleep.

The whirring of an office chair spinning in place is loud in the last few hours of the midwatch before the morning crew comes in.

"So, how did you get such an interesting nickname?"

"Um. Well, I was visiting my girlfriend and needed to go down the hall to the bathroom and borrowed her robe and slippers. Someone in her dorm took a picture and she sent to her brother who was in my unit, and he put it on the bulletin board."

"So, what were you wearing?"

"Um. her bathrobe and fluffy pink bunny slippers" confessed an embarrassed Fluff as he thunked his head on his desk.

From the cubical across the way Miguel snorted coffee through his nose and fell out of his chair.

A/N - Yup, a guy on my husband's submarine was nicknamed Fluff, and that was actually how he got his nickname.


	2. Chapter 2

Ugh, surveillance in the rain. Blech.

Look at this damned hair, frizz city.

"So."

"Can you talk?"

"Yup."

"Do you talk?"

"When I need to."

*heavy sigh*

"So, did you run track?"

"Nope."

Well, *that* was helpful.

"So, why do they call you Fast?"

"Come on, you can tell me."

"No"

"Why, you can't or you would have to kill me?"

Ha, he can snicker at least that is *something* different.

"Promise you won't tell the guys?"

"Honest, pinky swear I won't"

"I was a Submariner crosstrained as a rescue diver and I was on my first cruise. We were doing an exercise and my battle position was in the command center doing what was called 'plotting dots' - taking position information of other vessels and marking it on a large chart of the area. Normally my job was in the machinery space but as the newest person they gave me to command to plot dots."

Hm, he looks pretty uncomfortable, I bet this is embarrasing.

"And...?"

"Well, I leaned against a console, and hit a button .."

Sheesh, it would be easier to get Ranger to stop eating twigs than to get him to talk ...

"Well, it was the button that vents the forward ballast tanks and floods them with water so we sort of ... bounced."

"Bounced?"

"Off the bottom of the Long Island Sound."

"It is really shallow there ... so we ... bounced. And they started calling me Fast Flood Floyd."

*snicker*

*sigh*


	3. Chapter 3

T-13

"So..."

What is it, they have to pay by the word for conversations or what ...

My butt is asleep again.

"T-13. Do I call you T, or Mr 13 ..."

Sheesh. New guys.

"So, what were you, Ranger? SEAL?"

"Bubblehead"

What the fuck is a bubblehead?!

"Um ... bubblehead?"

"Submariner. As opposed to 'Target' "

"Target?"

"Surface ship, you know. Target."

Is that a hint of a smile?!

"So ... is a T-13 some arcane weapon?"

"No, my name."

"Your parents hated you?"

"No, my name starts with a T, and has 13 letters. It is Dutch and the DI couldn't figure out how to pronounce it, so he started calling me T-13."

"Well, I guess that makes sense."

"Yup."

Well, that took 5 minutes. 2 hours to go.

*sigh*


	4. Chapter 4

Blaze

*pop*  
*pwhhhooooooossssss*  
*pop*  
 _OK, you can wear out the stretch in bubble gum. Who knew._  
"So. Blaze."  
"Hm?"  
"How did you get your nickname? You like setting fires or something?"  
"No."  
"Come on, you can tell me ... unless you would have to kill me first?"  
*sigh*  
"I almost set the machine room on the USS Spadefish on fire and blew up the boat."  
"No shit?! How the hell do you do that! All I do is blow up cars ..."  
"Well, on a submarine you have to make the air you breath, and transport it around in ductwork"  
"Like heat and air conditioning in a house?"  
"Sort of. You have what is called 'the bomb' - it is a reinforced tank that you burn what are called oxygen candles - chemicals that when burned separate into oxygen and a mix od salt and rust. You run the oxygen into a tank and compress it with regular air. Because everything is contaminated with machine oil, dust, water and whatnot, the air and oxygen is run through highpressure piping to filters and water separators. OK?"  
"OK, though it sounds really complicated."  
"It is, and dangerous. So, I accidentally hit a release valve and the gasses rushing out got hot enough to light the oil and dust in the pipes, and the fire and heat started spreading towards the bomb and the other way to the filters. It got bad enough that the pipes in the machine space were glowing red. "  
"Holy shit ..."  
"It got really dangerous, but we managed to lock it down from both ends and the fire went out when the oxygen supply got cut off, but I really got in trouble - it was my first cruise ever, and I thought my career was going to be over but the guys I worked with told the Captain that I kept my head and worked really hard to fix the problem, so it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But it taught me to be really careful and double check everything after that."  
"I bet."  
"Hey Blaze?"  
"Hm?"  
"Glad you didn't blow up."  
"Thanks."


End file.
